Topics » Rebecca Brotman NAMS Award
Rebecca Brotman’s Article Selected for Best Paper Award
Rebecca M. Brotman, PhD, MPH, has been selected as the recipient of the 2015 Best Paper Award by Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). The journal’s editor, Dr. Isaac Schiff, reviewed all of the 2014 published articles from a pool of internationally recognized investigators, and selected Dr. Brotman’s paper for this honor.
Dr. Brotman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Her article reflects her interdisciplinary background in molecular epidemiology and genomics. Co-authors from the University of Maryland include Drs. Jacques Ravel, Pawel Gajer and Michelle Shardell.
The article is entitled “Association between the vaginal microbiota, menopause status, and signs of vulvovaginal atrophy” (Menopause, Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 450-458). The article sought to describe how the vaginal microbiota change with increasing age and how the bacterial communities are associated with gynecologic symptoms in menopause. Up to 50% of menopausal women experience the genitourinary syndrome of menopause (a new term that encompasses “vulvovaginal atrophy” among other characteristics), a condition which severely affects quality of life. Dr. Brotman and her colleagues demonstrated that the syndrome is associated with specific changes in the vaginal microbiota. The research team is now funded on a NIH R21 grant to analyze a larger cohort of 885 women who were followed for two years as they traverse between pre-, peri and post-menopause (R21-AI107224). Dr. Brotman’s research seeks to apply modern genomic-based approaches to better understand the interaction between the vaginal microbiome and women’s health, and ultimately to develop novel strategies to maintain a healthy and protective vaginal microbiome.
Dr. Brotman’s research seeks to apply modern genomic-based approaches to better understand the interaction between the vaginal microbiome and women’s health, and ultimately to develop novel strategies to maintain a healthy and protective vaginal microbiome.
The article will be recognized and Dr. Brotman honored at the NAMS 2015 Annual Meeting in October.
Link to NIH Public Access version of paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3994184/pdf/nihms514700.pdf
Link to faculty page:
http://medschool.umaryland.edu/FACULTYRESEARCHPROFILE/viewprofile.aspx?id=20403
North American Menopause Society (NAMS):
http://www.menopause.org